She's well on her way to getting what she wants! Yay! They adjusted her feedings again, just up'd the amount due to her weight...but she's still getting the 27 calories with microlipids and 2 scoops of protein.....and yesterday(Sunday) we were able to see how much it's working for her! She's up to 38ml of food every 3 hours....and it's totally working.....she's growing!
I love Sunday's because that's the day that they measure her head circumfrence and her length.....they weigh her everyday, but measurments are only done once a week. Yesterday, she grew 4 centimeters in length, 1 1/2 centimeter in head circumfrence, and she gained weight! She's now up to 4lbs.14 1/2oz. (only 1 1/2oz. more to be at 5lbs.) and she's almost 18 inches long! She has come so far, I can't believe how big she is!
When I walked in her room yesterday, Meredith was holding her, rocking her and talking to her....and she gave me the awesome news! I got to start non-nutritive feedings! Non-nutritive feeding is where I pump first to get all the milk out and then I let her suck to make sure she can latch on.....she did amazingly well! They only wanted me to try for 10 minutes so she wouldn't get overwhelmed.....but she did amazing! It was almost as if she was waiting for something to come out....haha....she would suck for a while, then stop and look around...then suck again! I was so happy that we're finally at that stage....maybe now, my milk supply will increase(fingers crossed). I get to do that once a day, everyday now! They start with non-nutritive so she can get used to it....so that when the time comes that she actually gets to start eating from the breast, it won't be such a shocker to her! Big steps my baby girl is taking, I'm so proud of her! :)
In rounds yesterday morning they talked about how she's been completely stable with her Fi02 consistantly between 26-33%.....the original plan was to wait until she gets her Fi02 down to 24% for a couple days before weining her oxygen, but it's been 11 days on 4.5 liters.....and she's stable....it's just her Fi02 isn't going down. They decided in briefing yesterday morning to order a chest x-ray for this morning to make sure her lungs were expanded and open....and if the x-ray looked good, they would turn her down 1/2 a liter. Well, her x-ray looked awesome, so they were able to turn her down to 4 liters. We're gonna sit there for a while to let her get used to a little less pressure on her lungs! Baby steps is what we have to take, and baby steps are working! :)
The NNP came in and updated me today on my baby Katea.....she told me that she was doing amazing and they were really happy with her progress. I'm a very proud mama.....she is amazing.....and I'm really happy too!
With the way things are going, we're hopefully looking at taking her home sometime mid-January! We're not really focusing too much on when we get to bring her home quite yet though, we're putting all our energy, prayers and hope on her progressing how she needs to.....and when she gets there, she'll get to come home! My mom and dad came up to visit her again a couple days ago and all my dad kept saying over and over was for us not to push the doctors.....just let them tell us when she's ready, don't push them to let us take her home......and honestly, we're not in any rush at all to take her home. Don't get me wrong, of course that's where we want her, so our whole family can be together.....but as long as it takes for her to be READY is ok with us. We are well aware of how lucky and blessed we are that she's alive and doing so well....we see miracles every day with the progress she makes....we're forever grateful for everything the NICU staff is doing for her. We are so thankful and count our blessings everyday!
I'm blogging right now during the hour the NICU is closed for shift change.....hopefully today she'll hit the 5lb. mark! Good job my beautiful baby Katea....you're amazing, I can't say it enough! :)
4 comments:
She is so sweet. I love reading about her progressing. Way to go babe! Mid-January is just around the corner too. We will keep our fingers crossed. I can't believe how far she has come. What a miracle. Sure love ya Mon.! You are an amazing mom!!! She is so lucky. So much love!
She looks so much like Lautala in that picture! Love to read about her progress. Keep it up baby Katea :)
adorable! love seeing the progress... keep up the great work monica!!!
I can't believe the changes she's made. She is so cute, and she is looking more and more like Lautala to me. Look at all her hair, and her beady eyes, I love her! Anywho your nurses are so cute, that's so creative "to grow an inch or 2" :)
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